DeFrancisco and Spitzer Debate TaxesNew York state Senator John DeFrancisco and former governor Eliot Spitzer were among panelists arguing for and against raising taxes on the rich, in the inaugural Campbell Debate at Hosmer Auditorium in the Everson museum on Wednesday night.

Tracking commentary and opinion from around Central New York, the state and nation:

Thursday's Topic:

Peter Mortenson, of Syracuse, writes how he disagrees with Sen. John DeFrancisco's comment on how half of Americans pay no income tax in the Readers' Page of today's Post-Standard. Here is his letter:

“Half of Americans pay no income taxes.” I remain dumbfounded how this mantra — often appearing in the Readers’ Page and once again voiced in Wednesday’s Campbell Debate by Republican Sen. John DeFrancisco — is supposed to be a rejoinder to Warren Buffett or Elizabeth Warren’s critique on the wealthy massing ever-greater fortunes while the rest sink into stagnation or poverty.

The underlying basis for DeFrancisco’s mantra is that half of our population live in or on the margins of poverty and cannot even make enough to pay federal income taxes. They, of course, do pay all kinds of other taxes, including FICA tax of 7.65 percent on every dollar they earn, while the wealthy pay no FICA tax and a special low rate of 15 percent on “unearned income” — unless they have it stashed offshore.

What world does DeFrancisco live in? He says that U.S. corporate tax rate is among the highest in the world, but U.S. corporations don’t actually pay it. They find many ways to avoid taxes. Over the last three years, for example, General Electric , DuPont, Boeing and Verizon paid no corporate tax while they made record profits.

Of course, Scrooge had a solution: Let them die and decrease the surplus population. We are talking poverty here, people. The working poor. We are not dealing with a half of the population who are ignorant, lazy, good-for-nothings who want a free ride, “turtle soup, and a gold spoon” in their mouth.